US Ski Team downhillers excited for second season of Speed Center training at Copper

Posted By John Meyer On October 31, 2012 @ 4:52 pm In Outdoor Extremes,Skiing and Snowboarding | No Comments

Copper Mountain — U.S. Ski Team downhillers have checked into Copper Mountain for training at the U.S. Ski Team Speed Center, and they fired up about it.

They should be. Nowhere else in the world right now can racers train full-on downhill. Speeds on the team’s exclusive training track, now in its second season, can reach 80 mph, and there are jumps of 50-70 meters. Racers free-skied the hill Wednesday and will begin training Thursday.

The men have their first World Cup downhill/super-G races Nov. 24-25 at Lake Louise, Alberta. The following weekend they will race at Beaver Creek.

“This year it’s at its max potential,” said veteran downhiller Marco Sullivan. “Last year they were scrambling to get all the fences in and the snow ready. I think we had a storm and the snow was really soft the first week, we got on it and it was good, but we didn’t have maybe the stellar training we had anticipated until the last couple days before we left — and then we were wanting to stay, but we had to go and race.

“This year we show up, everything’s in place, dialed in.”

This time last year, Copper crews were still in contruction mode, but they got it open and learned lessons that will make for even better training this year.

“Having a year under our belt to learn about the venue and the terrain and work with the athletes and the coaches, there’s been some tweaks,” said Copper Mountain general manager Gary Rodgers. “Some strategic removal of trees, as an example, to provide better width and training terrain in certain areas. We’ve shifted a couple of the ‘A’ nets around. On the snowmaking side, we had a brand new system last season and we were still learning it. This summer we worked with the manufacturer to dial it in and make ensure that we’re taking advantage of every opportunity to make quality snow on the venue.”

The Speed Center is a cooperative venture between the U.S. Ski Team and Copper Mountain.